Wednesday, July 11, 2007

TEAM Unity senatorial candidate Juan Miguel Zubiri grabbed a 17,000-vote lead from opposition candidate Aquilino Pimentel III in the contest for the last Senate slot, as the last certificates of canvas were tallied yesterday.

The Commission on Elections read the votes from Bais town in Negros Oriental, but Pimentel’s lawyer, Laila de Lima, said the election there was still being questioned.

With the three certificates included, Zubiri garnered a total of 11,001,050 votes over Pimentel’s 10,983,358, a difference of 17,692.

Aside from the votes from Bais, the Comelec also canvassed the votes from Pagalungan in Maguin-danao and Bogo City in Cebu province.

“We are still going to discuss that [De Lima’s motion], and we might have a decision by tomorrow,” Comelec Chairman Benjamin Abalos said.

Abalos hinted that once the Comelec resolves the issue raised by Pimentel’s lawyer, the poll body could proclaim the 12th and last winning senator despite a pending petition before the Supreme Court.

Pimentel has filed another petition before the Supreme Court questioning the legality of the Maguindanao canvass that gave Zubiri a lead of 128,000 over Pimentel.

“If we can proclaim before the Supreme Court rules, that [petition] would be rendered moot and academic,” Abalos said.

He said earlier that the Comelec would likely be able to proclaim the 12th winning senatorial candidate before the 14th Congress opened on June 23.

Also yesterday, the Comelec proclaimed 13 winning party-list groups that obtained more than the 2 percent of the total votes cast for the party-list elections.

But the poll body deferred the proclamation of the party-list Batas and other groups facing petitions for disqualification.

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Last night, I watched the news, koko said a lot of stuffs, like he will do this and that. he said that those election returns were fake or tampered. I forgot which. but anyway, it means pne thing, he wants Zubiri to not win.

Come on! why dont you just admit you lost? why do you have ot make things so complicated!? Better luck next time!